Dec. 27, 1906 



1049 



American Ttee Journal 



"Old Reliable," that Italian bees would 

 work on red clover to much belter ad- 

 vantage than did the blacks. As we 



then had thousands and thousands of 



acres of red clover around us, I was 

 again interested. The next day, after 

 reading this, I was at work cutting red 

 ■r in a 10-acre field, for hay. This 

 field was one mile from home, and that 

 mile was so much further from this 

 apiary of Italian bees, or this particular 

 field of red clover was 4 miles in a di- 

 rect line from these bees. When I 

 thought the horses needed a little rest, 

 I v. nit into the standing clover, and 

 the first count of the bees at work on 

 the bloom was 10 Italian bees to 4 blacks 

 out of a count of 14; and this with 

 fields red with clover in every direction. 

 I hesitated no longer, but went to see 

 the owner of these bees, and before 

 night of that day I had 2 Italian queens 

 in introducing cages in 2 of my best 

 colonies, which led to my adoption of 

 the Italian bees as "the best bee in the 

 world," a year or two later, since which 

 I have had no others except to try a 

 few of each new race as they came into 

 the United States. 



From the above it is entirely evident, 

 to my mind, that those who claim that 

 bees do not go over i l / 2 miles from 

 home are not fully informed on what 

 they are claiming. To the objection 

 that it is not profitable for bees to fly 

 so far, I wish to give a little more of 

 my own experience and observation : 



To the southeast of my home the 

 land rises gradually for 5 or 6 miles, 

 and at the end of this distance it is 

 800 to 900 feet higher than at the apiary. 

 Unless interrupted by a long rain the 

 bees follow the receding basswood 

 bloom till the top of this hill is reached, 

 when I frequently have them work from 

 5 days to a week on the bloom on the 

 top of this hill, and as far as I have ever 

 been able to see, they do so to nearly 

 or quite as good advantage as they did 

 when the bloom was open all about the 

 hives. Of course there is a chance to 

 be deceived a little here, for the same 

 amount of nectar coming in the hives 

 at the close of a long harvest, will 

 count for more than it will at the com- 

 mencement ; for in the commencement 

 much more nectar is used in the con- 

 struction of comb, and in commencing 

 business, than there is when the combs 

 are nearly completed, and the bees are 

 capping up the last honey put in nearly 

 finished cells. 



Choosing a Location. 



Now about my choice of a location: 

 If I were at liberty to choose a location 

 where I desired, and could find such 

 a one. it would be in a place where the 

 land sloped gently to the southeast, with 

 pasturage as follows: 



Some willow to stimulate early breed- 

 ing, with sugar or hard maple to follow; 

 then apple-blossoms, as an assurance of 

 plenty of stores from apple-bloom to 

 white clover, which latter, should be in 

 abundance. Next I would want plenty of 

 basswood, and that on a hillside, or ex- 

 tending from a valley, in which the bees 

 were situated, up the sides of hills or 

 mountains, with plenty at the top, so 

 as to prolong its bloom; and, lastly. 



wlure buckwheat and fall flowers were 

 in abundance. 

 lint the iiid-i of us have other tie 



besides the bees ill it fix our location, 

 and 50 \v o have to put up with such a 

 one as we have, and the man or woman 



is to he honored thai can be contented 



and bring about good results will: 



limited bee pasturage at his own h 

 where duty call- him or her to remain 



If I could have hut one of the above- 

 named sources for honey, I would select 

 basswood first, clover second, and buck- 

 wheat as third. From all source 

 information I can gather, basswood is 



the greatest honey-producer of any nec- 

 ing Hi rw er there is in the Unit- 

 ed States, for the length of time it is 



111 hi 11; and if the foot of a mountain, 



thi -ides of which are covered with 

 basswood i,,, 5] c;m De our location, we 

 shall have no reason to complain of 

 the length of time it is in blossom. 

 Then basswood comes in bloom so late 

 in the season that nearly all colonies 

 can he brought up to their maximum 

 strength, before the first bloom opens, 

 which cannot be said of its rival, white 

 clover. 



Borodino, N. V. 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Cleaning Sections of Honey for 

 Market 



With the remark, "Here, I'll let you 

 reply to this, seeing it refers to your 

 work ; and cleaning sections is properly 

 a woman's work, anyway," Dr. Miller 

 handed me the following letter which 

 I have read with amused interest: 



Dear Dr. Miller : — In the American 

 Bee Journal, pages 786 and 787, in 

 answer to the question, "How many 

 cases of 24 sections does your best hand 

 clean in a day," etc., you give the ans- 

 wer that 3 years ago Miss Wilson 

 scraped 2016 in a day, besides doing 

 all the work of taking out "the supers, 

 etc., and that an average work for 

 a day for an average worker would be 

 perhaps 1000 sections, or, in Colorado, 

 perhaps 960! " 



I frankly confess that these answers 

 are absolutely" stunning to me, and not 

 only to me alone, but to all my neigh- 

 bors who work comb-honey apiaries in 

 this part of California. We are ab- 

 solutely unable to understand how it 

 could be possible to perform such feats 

 as that of Miss Wilson, or even only 

 960 for Colorado workers. 



Last year, for instance, when we had 

 a pretty nice and lively honey-flow, 

 and the bees carried in the honey very 

 fast, and consequently the supers did 

 not remain so long (perhaps 8 to 10 

 days) on the hives, we here considered 

 4 cases — 96 sections — cleaned and 

 scraped properly, as a pretty good day's 

 work, say from 8 a. m. to 12 m.. and 

 from 1 p. 111. to 5 p. m., and keeping at 

 it steadily. And this year, try to do 

 the best we can. it's hardly possible to 

 finish properly more than 3 cases. True 

 it is. the actions, having to sta; 

 long in tin- hives, are much propolized, 

 ugly and dirty, and by no means filled 

 out properly, so that any amount of 

 careful scraping of tops, inside bottom-, 

 and the corner passage-ways has ti 



done. Now what, under these condi- 

 tions, would you call a good average 

 day's work ? 



It makes us simply smile, when we 

 read in bee-books : One stroke of the 

 knife cleans the propolis from each 

 side, etc., and we often say: If only 

 the man who wrote that could show 

 us how he would do what he asserts ! 

 There are at least 16 strokes to each 

 side (front and back) ; for two, 32. 

 Then the two outsides and bottom and 

 top to be cleaned of propolis, and the 

 tops here are the worst to scrape, so 

 as to make them look nice and clean, 

 and the turning and placing to and 

 fro on the table, and consequently a 

 goodly number of strokes and move- 

 ments — and multiply that by 960, or 

 even by 2016 — well! My hair stands 

 up. and I wonder ! 



Now, really, is not there somewhere 

 a little error as regards the figures 

 you give? 



For a better understanding, permit 

 me to mention that I, like my other 

 neighbors, work the regular 454 x 4% 

 sections in 24 section supers, wood or 

 tin separators, and sometimes do some 

 tilling up to 3 supers, but never more. 



I know that bees propolize more in 

 some parts of the country than in 

 others. Do you think that hybrid bees 

 propolize more than pure Italians? 



1 If we should have a real good 

 honey-flow next year, I suppose that 

 we could make up a purse so as to 

 make bold to offer an inducement to 

 any champion section-cleaner who 

 should guarantee to us that he would 

 clean and scrape only 1-2 or 1-3 of the 

 figures you give.) 



Anyhow, it may appear to you that 

 and this year only' 3 cases, 

 very, very little day's work — just 

 the same as your figure of 960 — and 

 then Miss Wilson's performance ap- 

 pears to us here as an almost impos- 



